Kyle Ellison / Kentucky Spring

Louisville, KY

Wooden Salad Tongs & cheese Cutters

Kyle Ellison grew up making things. Tools were central to his parents’ rural roots and their tools were available for Kyle’s use. He describes himself as the “first kid at the camp craft table.” Kyle says, as a child, he can remember repeatedly asking “What does it do?” To satisfy his curiosity, Kyle sought out old machinery to take it apart and see how it worked.

In 1990, Kyle visited his neighbor’s workshop. Since his neighbor, Jim Scoggins, was blind, Kyle was amazed that he had a complete set of woodworking tools. Jim taught Kyle to use his tools and the two formed a partnership, which lasted for several years. When Kyle became sole owner, he says he “made his mid-life career crisis official.”

Kyle is motivated by the challenge of designing and making useful kitchen tools with moving parts that are simple, beautiful, and durable. His passion is designing and improving the jigs and fixtures for the machines in his shop. Kyle’s creativity is expressed in designing not only the product but the process of making it. Kyle’s goal is “to build household tools that last a lifetime and work so well that all the others are sent off to a yard sale.”

Kyle is a member of the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen.

Kyle’s work can be found at the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea.